2017 Holiday Recap

The time between Christmas and New Years is my favorite time of the year. We had so many precious memories during that time that I wanted to do a post so I could look back and count all of our blessings during the holiday season.

{Thanksgiving}

Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year!  This year G and I had a quiet Thanksgiving together. Brock was in Arizona and Ava was in the Czech Republic.  

In November For Branch and Bloom we taught a class on how to make Thankful Trees for Thanksgiving Centerpieces.

My friend Julie hosted her annual Friendsgiving it was a fun night!

My BFF Rachael and I hosted our 5th annual Friendsgiving for our friends.  I love this tradition so much!  

I  ran the annual Turkey Trot on Thanksging Day.  It’s always a great way to kick off Thanksgiving Day.

Rachael and I hosted our 5th annual Holiday Market.  The Holiday Market is an event where we invite all our crafty friends to make items to sell then we invite the community for a day of holiday shopping.  It’s always a great event!  

{Christmas}

My sister in law Anne and I spent two days in NYC.  I love spending time with her and I hope this becomes a new tradition for us. I love NYC at Christmas 🎄 

Of course we had to stop and see the tree while we were in NYC.  We were there the Sunday/Monday before it was lit. 

I hosted my first annual tree lighting party to commemorate our one year anniversary of having the tree.  I think this will be a fun new tradition for us!  

Rachael and I taught two craft classes in December for Branch and Bloom.  We taught a personalized sign class and a farmhouse wreath class. 

My Bunco group had a Christmas party and gift exchange.  It was so fun!

My friend M had her annual Christmas party.  She always has a photo booth set up at her party and we always try to make a pyramid. Maybe next year we will perfect our pyramid-ha ha!

I saw Jennifer Nettles in a Christmas concert.  She is my favorite singer and I love Christmas songs so it was the perfect night!

I had my annual Christmas gift exchange with my BFF’s.  Our annual gift exchange is so much fun!  

I marched in the Christmas parade to support my friend Lisa and her Shoeboxes for Seniors event.

I was also able to go to the Shoeboxes for Seniors event before I left for Arizona.

Graig and I spent 10 days in Arizona with Brock for Christmas.  We had a wonderful time spending time with Brock and exploring Phoenix and we visited the Grand Canyon.  It was a great trip!

Meanwhile in the Czech Republic Ava has been enjoying the European holiday traditions.  She went to a Christmas market and helped clean the traditional Christmas carp. 

I just love this time of year!

Xoxo

Crafty Wednesday {Farmhouse Wreath}

Happy Wednesday Friends!   I know some people have already taken down their Christmas and are trying to purge and declutter for the New Year.  I am not one of those people 😂😂.  We just got home from Arizona and I want to enjoy my Christmas decorations for at least another week before I pack them away for the year.  

For the last Crafty Wednesday of the year I wanted to show you these Farmhouse Wreaths we made for a craft class for Branch and Bloom as part of the Gingerbread Jubilee/Festival of the Trees  celebration in our town.  

My friend Rachael and I own a small craft business called Branch and Bloom and once a month we teach a craft class.  We were so thankful that we were asked to do a craft class as part of the Gingerbread Jubilee this year. 

Here Rachael and I are with our friend V and her finished wreath ❤️

We had 50 people sign up for this class which was so amazing!  I love helping people to make beautiful things for their homes.  It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine however, it was a TON of work doing the prep work for this class.  Since we had so many people we wanted to make sure we had enough supplies and greens to do this class.  My biggest fear when we do a class (especially one this big!) is that we will run out of supplies. People pay us to come to classes so it’s our job to have everything they need to make a beautiful craft.  

We spent the week before the class gathering our greens.  We were able to get most of the greens from trees in our own yards and we got a ton of greens from Rachael’s mother in law’s property. We did have to buy 40 pounds of boxwood from the florist. Before the class we arranged all of our greens by type on tables in front of our room.

This is what 40lbs of boxwood from the florist looks like

Boxwood is SO beautiful and I love using it in wreaths but has a foul odor so you need to soak it in water and a splash of bleach so it’s less smelly. I had it soaking in our kitchen for a few days before our class. I added the water/splash of bleach after I took this picture 😉

In our craft class we had everything set up ahead of time.  We even cut all the wire to make it easy and quick for people to put together their wreaths.  We also put greens on each of the tables so each person would have their own to work with. 

Today I’m going to show you how to make one wreath.  Gathering the supplies for one wreath will be easy :-) 

For this project you need 

1. Floral wire

2. Wire cutters

3. Garden Clippers

4. Wire wreath form ours were 14 inches 

5. Assorted Greens

Having a good assortment of greens is key when making a wreath.  I like to use at least 4 different greens.  When working with greens you are going to want to use gardening gloves because they are very prickly and can hurt your hands.

Here are the greens we used for our class. 

Gather little bunches of greens and secure with a piece of wire.  Wrap the wire around the greens many times to make sure it’s secure.  I like to put common greens like blue spruce and hemlock in the back and the prettiest ones (white pine and boxwood)  in the front. 

Lay your bundles on your wreath form.  Get them how you like them (this might take a few minutes) and then secure the bundles to the wire wreath form with your wire.

We used floral wire on a spool from Michaels. We had this pre-cut for our class.  We cut our wire into 18 inch pieces.

Here is the wire wreath form we used.  Ours were 14 inches. You can get them bigger or smaller depending on how big you want your wreath to be. 14 inches is a good size for a front door.

Continuing securing the bundles to the wreath with floral wire form until the entire wreath is filled with your small bundles.

That’s it!  You’ve made your completed wreath!

In our class we gave people a spool of wired ribbon and  taught people how to make a bow.  Shoutout to my neighbor T for holding the mic for me while I taught people how to make a bow :-) 

For my own wreath I didn’t add the bow I think simple is better.

Here are some more pictures from our class.  We loved taking pictures of people with their finished wreaths.

I hope this tutorial inspired you to make a beautiful wreath for your home.  If you ever want to take a class at Branch and Bloom check out our Facebook page for upcoming classes.

Happy Wednesday!

Xoxo 

Merry Christmas 2017 🎄❤️

Merry Christmas from our family to your family.  I  hope you spend today with those people that you love ❤️ Today is our last day in Arizona so we are soaking up every minute with Brock.

Xoxo

I love looking at our older pictures around Christmas time.  Here are some of my favorites from past Christmases 🎄❤️